Summary:
But the “Bengali account of the Great War” will help bust some stereotypes, it is hoped. The audio recordings are of Bengali lascars who were taken prisoners in Germany and housed at the Wünsdorf POW camp in 1918. Of them, 26 were selected fit and were sent to Pondicherry for training and later sent to war. Sen is also considered to be the first Bengali to have died in World War I. “Seamen, known as Lascars, joined the British Army from Bengal, Assam and parts of Upper India,” says Datta..